The top 5 ways founders are generating leads (in 2024)
Catherine Turner 2024
For your business to grow, it needs to have a constant stream of leads. That way, when clients drop off, they are replaced. Enquiries turn to sales calls and signups, meaning more revenue and profit for you and your team.
It sounds so easy. But lead-generation doesn’t happen by accident. These founders are getting intentional about where leads come from, sharing the top strategies they are deploying this year.
How can you generate leads as an entrepreneur?
Create content
Martin Huntbach, CMO at scorecard marketing tool ScoreApp, said, “Your content funnel should help prospects fall in love with you, and you’ll make more sales quicker on the back of it.” Huntbach’s lead-generation strategy includes offering mini courses to audience members, to create the ideal scenario of “having sales conversations with people who are already excited to buy from you, because you’ve already built so much trust.”
Akhil Mishra, cofounder of MTLegal Team, posts a lot on LinkedIn and connects with anyone that engages with his content. “Conversation about problems normally leads to sales,” he said. So that’s what he talks about, in the form of valuable content. You don’t need to complicate creating. Figure out what your audience wants to know and experiment with formats until you grab their attention. Produce compelling lead magnets that they can’t wait to explore.
Run webinars
“95% of marketing specialists believe webinars to be integral to their overall content marketing strategy,” said Rachel Meyrowitz, director of demand generation at Banzai and author of the Demio blog, about webinar marketing strategies. Meyrowitz said “both live and on-demand webinars can be incredibly effective and engaging.” Whichever you choose, build a compelling landing page that creates a sense of urgency, so people want to register.
“Spend 80% of your time promoting one good lead magnet,” said Huntbach, who also runs free webinars to generate leads for ScoreApp. Before people join each webinar he requires they answer the questions, “What’s your biggest struggle? What’s your goal? What have you tried before?” so the content is ultra relevant to the attendees. If you’re good at teaching on camera, it makes perfect sense. Create a webinar landing page and share it on social media.
Cold email marketing
“Cold emailing is the way I generate leads for new business,” said Nadia Worsley, founder of PR agency Twelve 88 Agency. “I usually send 3-5 emails per day to my ideal clients after researching them thoroughly. I’m very strategic,” she added. Worsley finds active entrepreneurs earning at least $100k per year, and her call to action when emailing is to “hop on a discovery call to see if we align, see if they’re open to PR, and go over their goals.”
“A lot of people do cold email wrong,” added Pinterest entrepreneur Nic Polotnianko, but “when done properly, it can give huge ROI with not that big of an investment.” Make your dream list, use a tool that collects their publicly-available email addresses, research how to run effective cold email messaging and get to work. What do you have to lose?
Industry partnerships
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Dimana Markova, digital marketer and copywriter, explained that partnerships are the way to generate leads. “I partner with one VC, one tech solutions provider and another service provider,” she said Why do partners send leads her way? Because they “benefit when their B2B clients are marketing themselves better.” Total alignment and a win win.
“90% of our leads come through our website,” said Sara Fleyfel of Little Media Agency. Her company invests in SEO and pays to partner with an industry directory called Clutch. “Because of those two methods, we are ranking on the first page of Google and we get at least 2-5 enquiries every week.” Solid marketing, repeatable leads, consistent growth. What every founder wants for their business.
Get press
Winning press could win you clients. Big publications carry kudos, and some founders still swear by this strategy. “I generate leads leveraging media coverage,” said PR entrepreneur Louise Cox. “It works because media features establish me as an expert, building trust with potential leads. It’s also cost-effective, builds social proof, and helps me stand out in a competitive space.”
Andrii Latenko, CEO at HARO Links Agency, uses HARO to generate PR and backlinks for his own business as well as its clients. “By providing expert insights to journalists in need of sources, we get high-quality backlinks from reputable sites.” Latenko says he submits responses to “15 to 20 HAROs each day, with a success rate of 20-30%.” If people know you’re the real deal, you bounce to the top of the line in their head. Don’t compete for attention; stand out and attract it in.
Generating leads as an entrepreneur: the top 5 ways to do it in 2024
Make your plan for generating leads to never be short of clients. Try cold email marketing, set up industry partnerships, create content that builds trust, run webinars for your audience and secure press coverage.
You don’t need to do everything at once. Choose one method and double down. Plan, execute and measure, then repeat what works. Generate leads in 2024 and beyond by learning from entrepreneurs winning this game.
